Some days ago, I overheard a student voice the opinion that Americans should not have to use their hard-earned money to pay for the healthcare of others. While this seems a reasonable sentiment on the surface, it is akin to complaining about having to pay for the fire department services of lazy poor people when their house is burning down.
Health care is not some bourgeoisie amenity providing facelifts for welfare recipients. America is only just now catching up to what many European countries realized decades ago, which is that healthcare is a right that human beings are not obligated to go bankrupt for. What this recent healthcare reform has done benefits everyone. Insurance companies used to be able to drop coverage when patients became sick, including children.
While our current bill may not be perfect or as universal as some other countries, this represents a much-needed step away from the insurance industries ability to kill you or take all of your money. It is no surprise that the countries with the highest standards of medical care, such as Sweden, also offer it universally. While it may be difficult to abandon our inborn American greed and hatred for helping out society at large with “our” hard-earned money, the 21st century demands a different standard of respect for the rights of our fellow human beings.
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